Dragon Ball Z: A Brother's Love
by CrimsonFlare121
Summary: Even though Goten can be more than a little annoying at times, when things go down to the wire, Gohan will always be the first to protect his little brother. Oneshot, assumes events of DBZ Movie 7 don't occur.


**A/N: A random one-shot that struck me while watching the episode where Gohan is training with Goten for the WMAT. The brotherly interaction and clear bond the two share, despite the traditional depiction of Goten and Trunks as unmanageable troublemakers, resulted in this. It occurs in the same time period as my other story. Hope you enjoy it. **

**FYI, this assumes the content of a certain Dragon Ball Z movie as nonexistent. **

"THAT'S IT, I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU AND TRUNKS! GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I GET REALLY ANGRY!" Gohan roared in fury as he stormed across the high-class restaurant's dining area. Shocked patrons scattered scattered in his wake and the two young boys fled in terror from his righteous wrath. Sprinting out of the doors and into the evening crowd, they rapidly darted into an alley, and, seconds later, two blurs of gold, moving so fast that only Gohan could distinguish the individual shapes of Goten and Trunks, shot into the sky. Standing in the doorway, the tall young man breathed heavily, radiating extremely aggravated exasperation. A large wine stain was clearly marked down the front of his once-elegant dinner suit, courtesy of yet another of the boys' incessant and increasingly daring pranks. A year after the defeat of Kid Buu, and the reestablishment of safety, the only disruptions to the Z-Fighters' serenity lay in the two young children that were currently still hurtling away from West City as fast as they could fly.

Turning slowly around, he met the frank stares, whispered pointing and appalled expressions of the diners whose peaceful Friday out at a fancy restaurant he had so abruptly interrupted. Sighing, he met the sympathetic, also exasperated gaze of the person he was _supposed _to be enjoying a night out with. Approaching, he half-whispered in her ear:

"You'd might as well leave now, Videl, there's no way this is going to end up like we planned."

"But, Gohan, we haven't even gotten our meals yet. And what about the rest of the night?"

"I'm sorry, Videl, but I'm too pissed off right now to focus on our date. You can take the car, I'll fly home; try and chase Goten down, maybe. How about Sunday night instead?"

"Well... alright, Gohan, but you know they aren't going to let up on you, no matter how many times you tell them."

Standing, Videl made her way out the door, and within moments, had decapsulized the car and headed back to the Satan Mansion. Gohan, after kissing her good-bye, merely stood on the sidewalk, wrestling with his conflicting emotions. A large part of him, the more animalistic, emotional portion, (id, for the Freudians) wanted nothing more than to hunt Goten and Trunks down and beat the living daylights out of them. He was, after all, perfectly capable of doing so, and as this was the third consecutive prank-Gohan-while-he's-on-a-date the boys had pulled, his customary tolerance for the boys' mischief was wearing thin. Nonetheless, the more collected, rational side of him (superego), told him that the boys were merely up to their usual antics, and that they were simply jealous that he was spending less time entertaining them, and focusing more on Videl and his relationship with her. In the end (ego) he decided to restrain himself to a dire warning/threat, after hunting the boys down to intimidate them and show that they couldn't run from them. That, he told himself, ought to have the intended effect and get the boys to direct their attention elsewhere, at least temporarily. Having determined his course of action, Gohan wasted no time in darting into the same alleyway the boys had utilized, and rocketing into the sky on their lingering trail.

Having been denied their favored pastime of pranking Gohan, the boys had nothing with which to occupy their miniscule attention spans. After some deliberation, they, or rather, Trunks, decided to seek out some old battlegrounds his father had spoken of whilst relating tales of his future counterpart. Apparently, the Androids had originated from some hidden laboratory-cavern up north, whose location Trunks had subsequently managed to wheedle out of his mother. Thus decided, the boys took off, eager as always for a mischief-laden adventure.

"This is boring, Trunks. I thought you said there was some fancy lab-ra-tor-y, but there's nothing here but a bunch of rocks. And I'm cold, and hungry. Mom said she was making pot roast tonight, so can we go home now?"

"Quiet, Goten! Is your stomach all you think about? We're right at the coordinates, the lab should be right- oh wait, that's right. My mom told me that my future self blew it up. The wreckage is probably buried under these rocks. C'mon Goten, help me dig."

After digging for some time, and unearthing numerous bundles of charred wire, metal scraps, and omnipresent gravel, Trunks hand struck something metallic and solid.

"Look Goten, over here! I found something! It's pretty big too; help me get it out!"

Bending over, Trunks brushed away some of the gravel obscuring the half-buried object. He tentatively identified it as a coffin-shaped case. A large paint mark, long faded away, inscribed one end of the case. After Goten joined him, the two scrabbled for a handhold, eventually gripping what seemed to be an actual grip on the bottom edge. As they strained to heave the case from its rocky bed, the grip they were yanking on suddenly swung upward with a loud snap of metal. The top of the case had separated from the rest, revealing it to be, in fact a coffin of sorts. Within the metal case, unmoving, lay a short, purple-skinned humanoid, dressed in a yellow suit, blue pants and large green hat.

"It's a...person, Trunks. But he's all cold and shiny-like. Is he dead?"

"Ummm, I don't know. How would I know? Wait, did you see that?"

"What, Trunks, I didn't see anything. Wait, he's moving!"

Slowly, and with considerable clumsiness, like a man waking from a deep slumber, the person sat up. Looking left and right, it spotted a now terrified Trunks and Goten, who had backed some distance away and were observing it with considerable trepidation.

"Scans complete. Time elapsed since enclosure: approximately ten years. Condition of Dr. Gero's laboratory: completely dysfunctional, likely due to battle. Remaining androids: two, in operable but deactivated condition, still sealed. Life-forms present: two, ages eight and nine, half-Saiyan, one bearing a strong resemblance to Son Goku, Mission Objective. Mission Objective: terminate Son Goku. Current operating status: functional, minor damages and corrosion suffered."

Android 15 turned to the the nearby rubble, and in short order, unearthed two more cases similar to the one he had been entombed within. As the frightened yet curious Trunks and Goten watched from several hundred meters away, the android unsealed the two cases, and from within them emerged two more people: a very tall, pale-skinned man with a long braid, and a shorter man in a green vest and baseball cap.

"Hey Goten, try and sense them. I can't."

"Me neither. I think that means they're dead. But then, how are they moving? Are they zombies?"

"No, you dummy, I think they're Androids. I remember my dad saying something about Androids not having life signatures. And remember Krillin's wife? We could never sense her either."

As the boys deliberated on the status of the three androids, the aforementioned androids turned as one towards the cluster of rocks the boys were observing from. In a blur of movement, all three were less then ten meters away. The trucker spoke up: "You there, you're Goku's kid, ain't you? Where is he?"

A startled Goten jumped slightly before responding in a suspicious tone: "Who are you? And why do you want to know where my dad is?"

"We three are programmed to kill Goku, as per the good doctor's orders. Now tell us where he is, and we'll be on our way."

A now very startled Goten immediately turned to his friend. "What?! Did you hear that Trunks? Those guys wanna kill my dad!"

Trunks, his face grim, replied: "Yeah, I heard. Get ready Goten, this doesn't look good." His eyes darted to the androids' surrounding positions and their vaguely threatening stances.

"There's no way I'm gonna tell you where my dad is!" Goten shouted defiantly. "If you wanna kill him, you're gonna have to beat us first!"

"Well, then, so be it, pipsqueak. I don't recommend it, but if you're Goku's kid, then I can see the fine brain he passed on."

"Enough talk, it's time to fight!" Turning to Goten, Trunks hastily muttered: "We'd better go Super right now. These guys look pretty tough."

Standing and stepping clear of the rocks they had thus far been semi-huddling behind, the boys took up classic fighting stances and gave a simultaneous yell. Their hair straightened, becoming metallic golden, and their eyes lost their pupils, replaced by homogenous teal orbs. Golden auras, pulsing steadily, surrounded the two boys and generated clouds of dust and pulverized rock as they swelled around the boys. The androids, however, were unimpressed. With a slight gesture from the trucker, the two other androids hurled themselves towards the boys, and the battle was joined.

Goten ducked and weaved, allowing the short androids' punches to sail harmlessly by, and countered with a sharp elbow strike to the forehead. In doing so however, he received a heavy kick to his left side, which he barely managed to awkwardly block. Swinging his own kick, he brought a small but powerful fist crashing into the android's right shoulder when it leapt to avoid the kick. Rising into the sky, the two combatants traded a flurry of blows, almost perfectly even. Nearby, Trunks and the tall android were embroiled in a flashing energy duel. Swatting aside a purple blast, Trunks fired a scaled-down version of his father's Big Bang Attack in return, which was blocked handily by the android. Ducking a barrage of small bolts, he failed to recognize the android's ploy until a large fist connected with his nose, sending him flipping backward into a large pile of rubble. Alerted by the crash, Goten dropped his guard for an instant, glancing over at Trunks in concern. His opponent took full advantage of his momentary lapse in concentration to land a sharp combination of blows on the boy's torso, ending with a whirling kick that sent the youngest son of Goku into the recently excavated crater, courtesy of Trunks.

In perfect synchronization, the androids launched a furious hail of energy blasts at the fallen boys, carpeting the ground in a veritable storm of energy. Each finished with identical orange beach-ball sized blasts, which exploded into overlapping domes of pure energy. When the smoke cleared, the crater was a full two hundred feet deeper and a good hundred yards across. Silence reigned again for a handful of moments. An instant later, golden energy illuminated the cracks in the heaped rubble, and the piled rocks burst apart In a dazzling display of might. The boys, unscathed, stood back-to-back at the bottom. Trunks nudged Goten and leaned to whisper in his ear: "Let's finish this Goten. Remember, androids have unlimited energy, so they can go on fighting forever. The best thing is to power up now and beat them."

"Yeah, Trunks, great plan. Let's do it!"

Once again letting out simultaneous yells, the boys' auras expanded dramatically, bolts of concentrated energy racing up the auras, and the scattered rubble was blown skyward. A second later, two golden blurs shot from the rubble, engaging the two previous androids in a heated exchange. Moments later, after beating down the android's defense with sheer force, Goten's energy-enveloped fist penetrated the android's torso, punching clean through vital circuitry. Freezing in place, the android detonated an instant later. Against the other android, Trunks gathered golden energy in each palm. Combining the two orbs, he focused the cumulative power into a single massive beam. Shouting:"BIG TREE CANNON!", he released the attack, which crashed headlong into the tall android's guard, and, after a prolonged struggle, finally overwhelmed it, destroying the android in a blinding flash of light. Assorted bits and pieces of the two automatons littered the rocky soil. The third and final android, who had thus far done nothing but watch, raised his head and grinned.

"Not bad, little tykes, taking down 14 and 15 like that. That powerup of yours sure does pack a wallop. I think the both of you might even beat the tar out of me too, like that." Seemingly unafraid despite his statement of vulnerability, Android 13 stepped forward, arms splayed, and four pieces of the scattered remains of the destroyed androids rose into the air, hovering around him. Two smaller ones slid fluidly through the skin of his temples, while the two larger pieces were absorbed through his chest. Laughing maniacally, the androids' muscles bulged enormously, turning dark blue and silver, and shredding his vest in the process. His silver, flowing hair stood rigidly upright, not unlike the effect the SSJ transformation had, but became bright orange instead of gold. His shoulders widened dramatically and his eyes, again like the SSJ transformation, became solid, but yellow. Now a hulking twelve-foot horror, Android 13 straightened up and bared his teeth in a gruesome grin.

"Uh-oh, Trunks, I think we're in trouble..."

Trunks didn't bother responding; he gritted his teeth and concentrated on keeping his power level as high as possible.

Still grinning, Android 13 vanished. In the split second that Trunks and Goten had, a profound realization of how far they were outclassed dawned on them, before a brutal clothesline caught both of the boys in the neck, stunning them long enough to be smashed forcefully to the ground. A pained cry escaped the lips of Goten, galvanizing Trunks into action. Gathering what energy he could as fast as he was able to, he landed a hefty blow to the left lower ribs of the hulking mechanical monstrosity, which failed to stagger the android in the slightest. His eyes widening in astonishment, he detected the counter-blow an instant too late, and a massive fist caught him in the head, propelling him a good fifty yards and abruptly dispelling his aura before depositing him in a heap in the side of a mountain.

Now it was Goten's turn to be shocked into action. Rapidly charging a Kamehameha, he let loose at point-blank range as the horrifying hellion turned on him. His blast was cut short mid-beam when the android's enormous boot smashed into his connected palms, fracturing his wrist and continuing on to smash solidly into his chest, cleanly snapping a rib or two. Groaning in agony, Goten hurtled backward, but was brought suddenly down to Earth with a piercing cry when the android's double axe handle crashed into his torso, breaking another rib and sinking deep into his diaphragm, knocking the wind out of him and stunning him for several minutes. His limp body skidded across the dirt before fetching up against a small heap of rubble, and his hair darkened to black as his battered body failed to maintain the energy output necessary to remain a Super Saiyan.

Cackling sadistically, the seemingly unstoppable android strode over to the unresisting boy to finish the job. As he raised his hand, energy-filled palm ready to administer the coup de grace, a hoarse shout split the air, and a yellow boot hammered into the android's head with incredible force. All of Trunks's remaining energy was funneled into the single blow, and for the first time, the android was actually affected, hurtling backwards and smashing through several rock formations. Hastily landing beside his fallen friend, Trunks hoisted his body upright, draping Goten's arm over his shoulder and rising as fast as he could manage into the sky. "C'mon Goten, we gotta hurry, that kick won't hold the monster for long. We need to get out of here fast, and let- ah!" A blast caught the flying boy in the back, upsetting his concentration and sending him tumbling to the ground. Barely retaining his hold on Goten, Trunks once again collided forcefully with the ground, excavating yet another crater with the force of his impact. His hair too, faded to purple as he regressed back into his base state.

Blearily maintaining their hold on consciousness and unable to summon any energy to resist further, the boys could only lay helplessly and watch as the unscathed android, still laughing maniacally, stood above them and raised his hands. An enormous, swirling translucent red energy sphere with an opaque core (called the Full-Power SS Deadly Bomber, according to the wiki) formed in his palms, far, far more energy than the boys could ever hope to endure. Half-dead and staring in abject terror, unable to muster the energy to even stand, Goten and Trunks were left pondering the sum of their ever-so-short lives and their meanings. The energy orb swelled to the size of a house and the Android heaved it high, arms poised to hurl the killing energy-

"Get away from them."

An utterly imperative, barely restrained bark cut through the tense atmosphere, shocking the android into freezing mid-throw, energy ball still held ready to end the lives of the boys. A tall, muscular, figure stood a few hundred meters away, having somehow managed to land without alerting the android. Fists clenched as his sides, wind gusting forcefully around him, and his clear-gray aura pulsing rapidly, Ultimate Gohan radiated pure fury. Android 13, eyes narrowed in puzzlement, began to speak: "What have we he- oof!" Mid-sentence, a tremendous force crashed into his midsection, sending him hurtling backwards through several mountains, his enormous energy ball sent wayward into another nearby mountain. Gohan knelt next to the fallen boys, concern writ large on his face. "C'mon, little bro, Trunks, let's get you to Kami's place. Dende can fix you up in no time." He murmured reassurances to the heavily battered boys, tucking one each under his arm and preparing to fly away.

A torrent of red energy blasts came hurtling from the vast heap of rubble that had been a mountain a few seconds prior. "Where do you think you're going, you big hero? Gonna ride in on the white horse in the nick of time and blindside me without staying to fight? Yellow-livered coward is what you are-"

Gohan, completely unharmed by the attack, turned his head towards the android, now on its feet and charging up another of the huge red energy balls. His hands full with the limp boys, Gohan's eyes burned with a brilliant white glow, and a kiai tore through the intervening space between him and the android. Eyes widening, the android perceived the threat a millisecond before it tore into him, disintegrating his very being upon impact.

With the threat settled and his bloodlust sated, Gohan glanced around again, as if daring the empty landscape to produce another threat, before lifting off and hurtling towards Kami's Lookout. As he flew, he repeatedly and viciously castigated himself for not noticing the dire straits his brother and Trunks were in sooner. Speeding up, he powered up and simultaneously funneled a substantial quantity of energy into the boys to safeguard them from the risk of dying. He noticed that Trunks had fallen unconscious during his rescue, and that Goten was just hanging on to consciousness, about to slip away as well.

"Big brother, is that you?" A weak voice interrupted Gohan's furious self-berations, bringing his attention back to the pitiful state his vibrant little brother had been reduced too.

"Yeah, Goten, don't worry, I've got you now. Everything going to be just fine."

Instantly put at ease by the verification that his big brother was present, Goten finally released his tenuous grip on consciousness. His elder brother smiled slightly, despite the grim situation, and tightened his grip slightly on Goten. "Yeah, little guy, everything is fine now. You're safe."


End file.
